Evaluation of the Regional Development and Protection Programme - Lebanon, Jordan & Iraq

Description: 
The Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is commissioning an indpendent evaluation of the Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP), to be undertaken from August 2017 to December 2017.  

The RDPP is a multidonor programme to support Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq to better plan, mitigate and, where possible, maximise the positive effects of the presence of refugees from Syria. The four-year programme has a total budget of 42 million Euro  and is supported by eight donors; the EU, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, UK, Norway, the Czech Republic and Denmark. The EU and Denmark are the two largest donors to the programme and the programme is managed by Denmark. 

With the increased focus on the refugee situation in the region, where almost 5 million syrians have registrered as refugees in the neighbouring countries, adressing the protractedness of the crisis is key to the response. The RDPP focuses not only on immediate humanitarian needs, but also longer-term perspectives on the challenges facing both refugees and host communities. The objective of the RDPP is to ensure that refugees are able to avail themselves of a durable solution and to support the socio-economic development in host countries, benefitting host populations and refugees and enhancing the capacity of refugees to contribute as positive development actors.  

The Programme is structured around four thematic areas:  
 
1) Research: Focusing on supporting analysis and research ont he impact of the Syrian displacement on the region and on policy frameworks in the region, with a solutions-oriented perspective.

2) Advocacy and policy dialogue: Supporting dialogue platforms and development of advocacy papers to form the basis for a dialogue on the displacement crisis.

3) Protection: This includes support to partners in provision of legal assistance to vulnerable refugees and host community members, combatting child labour and capacity building of national authorities to adress protection risks in local communities.

4) Livelihoods: Enhancing the self-reliance of refugees and host communtiy members through skills-building, employment generation and support to establishing small businesses.  

The programme supports 36 projects through 30 patneships with UN agencies, international NGOs and National NGOs as well as CSOs. The partners in Lebanon receive the largest share of funds (50%), whereas Jordan and Iraq receive around around 25-30% and 15-20% of funds.  
 
The purpose of the evaluation is to document outcomes at the programme level and assessing  synergies between programme components. Moreover, the evaluation should assess the value-added of the RDPP approach of bridging humanitarian assistance with development engagements and document lessons learnt for future programming.   
 
The evaluation should be conducted by an evaluation team with extensive experience within the field of humanitarian assistance, especially related to protracted conflicts, forced displacement and bridging humanitarian and development assistance.  

The assignment is expected to start mid-August 2017 and completed in December 2017. Mission travel to Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq is planned for September 2017.  

The maximum budget for the evaluation is 980.000 DKK, including all fees and reimbursables required for the implementation of the contract.

Deadline for applications: 24 July 2017, at 10:00, Danish time

The standard application form should be used. Applications not using the standard form may be rejected. Applications received after the deadline shall be rejected.

Contact Point:
Name of Programme Officer: Marianne Vestergaard     
E-mail address, Programme Officer: marves@um.dk
Telephone of Programme Officer: +45 33920030

Criteria for selection:
A minimum of three and a maximum of five applicants references best suited for this assignment will be invited to submit a tender.